Sueo Serisawa (April 10, 1910 – September 7, 2004) was a Japanese American who became a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

of the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

school.

Theme/style

Serisawa's painting genres included

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, Regionalism, Expressionism, and Abstraction. He also produced still lifes and

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

s. The portrait of

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

is a typical example of the approach of Serisawa's portrait style that evolved during the late 1930s/1940s. His use of colour, light and texture gave an ethereal and quiet quality to his works. Serisawa's style was influenced by European Impressionists such as Renoir, Monet and Degas whose works he admired and studied extensively. Serisawa also was influenced by earlier European masters, including EI Greco, Rembrandt and Velasquez, and these various artistic influences resulted in what became for him a blending of the California Landscape School with Impressionism and his move from almost exclusively landscapes to portraits. The portrait of Garland was one of the last he did before he was forced to leave the West Coast due to the start of WWII.

Media

He worked in oils and watercolors, also making lithographs.

Biography

Serisawa was born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

, Japan on April 10, 1910, the son of artist Yoichi Serisawa. The family emigrated from Japan to Seattle and then to Los Angeles in 1918 where his father continued his artistic career. The young Serisawa, inspired by his father, became involved in the California Art scene perfecting his style within

American Impressionism American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose ...

Early career

During his time in California he taught and painted portraits of many Hollywood personalities, including

in 1940 as well as still lifes and landscapes. He continued to exhibit, winning many substantial awards, and his increasing international reputation led to private classes for such Hollywood notables as Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Frances Marion. His first major museum exhibition featuring portraits, still lifes and landscapes was held, ironically, on the day

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

was attacked (December 7, 1941), at the Los Angeles County Museum. Sueo Serisawa became known as one of the leading figures in the

-based school of Modernism. Associated with the likes of Bentley Schaad, Richard Haines,

Millard Sheets Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was an American artist, teacher, and architectural designer. He was one of the earliest of the California Scene Painting artists and helped define the art movement. Many of his large-scale bu ...

, and Francis De Erdely, Sueo Serisawa helped position the West Coast as a fertile and revolutionary art center. An ambitious and talented artist, Serisawa exhibited in national shows and eventually won international recognition and his works are highly sought after.Anderson, Alissa J., ''Sueo Serisawa (1901-1987)''
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into the war, Serisawa, as a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

immigrant, became fearful of forced internment on the West Coast. He and his family moved first to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and then to New York City until 1947 when they were able to safely return to Los Angeles. Serisawa studied at Otis Art Institute and the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

. He became a painting instructor himself, teaching at Kahn Art Institute, Scripps College, and the Laguna Beach School of Art. Serisawa spent the rest of his life in California, teaching and painting right up until his death at age 94 in 2004. He is survived by a daughter, a grandson and great grandchildren. Serisawa has influenced artists internationally and his work continues to be exhibited. In 2006 it was featured in "California Modernism: The Legacy of Five Exceptional Artists: Mabel Alvarez, Edward Biberman, Boris Deutsch, Francis de Erdely, and Sueo Serisawa" at the Spencer Jon Helfen Fine Arts gallery in Beverly Hills.

Artistic Focus

Serisawa's early works were romantic: still lifes and portraits painted in a style influenced by classic European art. His work up to 1941 had a decidedly Modernist, even Regionalist flair. But history – both personal and political – intervened, as Serisawa later returned to his Asian roots and began painting in an abstract style influenced by the teachings of Zen philosophy, Oriental culture, and the structure and form offered in his study of calligraphy.

Career highlights

* Born in Japan, moved to Seattle in 1918 to join his father, painter Yoichi Serisawa, and began painting at age 8 with his father's guidance. * Serisawa later studied art under George Barker, as well as at the Otis Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago. * 1940 - invited to paint a portrait of

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

star Judy Garland. * On the day that his one-man show opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, America was plunged into war; the date was December 7, 1941. * The subsequent internment of Japanese Americans sent the Serisawa family to New York City, to avoid confinement. As difficult as that time was, Serisawa later said that his time in New York was a significant influence on his development as an artist. * Later in his career, Serisawa taught art at Scripps College, the Laguna Beach School of Art and the Palm Springs Museum of Art. * Serisawa's works are included in the collections of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

External links

Sueo Serisawa BiographyOverview of Serisawa's style and life